Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My questions or comments are directed towards Commissioner Stoddart.
I always enjoy your comments because there are many challenging issues with respect to privacy. I'm looking forward to reading this decision that you have given in your comments--this Federal Court decision--particularly the comment where it says that privacy is paramount over the access to information, which we've heard before. I'm always amused by that, particularly coming from a small community, as many of us do, because in small communities there are no secrets. It's impossible to keep secrets in small communities. However, I understand that.
I want to canvass this, though, because we're told that for Health Canada to look at serious adverse reactions, we need to look at a whole slew of things. There may have been a practitioner who goofed in his or her prescription. Someone may have said, “Oh well, instead of taking four pills, I'll take eight pills.” There may be some genetic issues. There may be all kinds of things that deal directly with the individual. We know that when doctors discover that someone has a communicable disease, they have an obligation to tell the spouse. We know that when a teacher, for example, finds that some child may have been abused or may be bruised, they have the law and they have to go and report that.
I guess I get to the question: how can the government properly study serious adverse reactions if they don't know the identity of the individual?